Leyla remembered throwing the first punch, so blind with fury it came as an instantaneous reflex. The fire burning in her eyes that pooled on her lashes as tears turned everything red as she lashed out with her fists again, inviting the crunch of teeth echoing throughout the hallway. Her knuckles were covered with blood that wasn't hers but her mouth was filled with her own. She couldn't taste anything - not the metallic sting on her tongue. She couldn't hear anything - her sister yelling at her for her to stop and the whole Ravenclaw house clamouring behind her.
Cold knuckles met the side of her face, and her head snapped to the right violently. She retaliated, ignoring the blackness that was seeping into her eyesight and charging with full force. Her arms went around his waist, and with one swift kick, Marcus Flint was on the floor, a raging Leyla Domas on top of him. They were pulled into a rough tangle, his knee knocking harshly into her abdomen and her nails clawing him across the side of his face.
They were struggling, a mess of arms and legs, a flurry of kicks and punches and soon, two arms hooked themselves around her armpit and pulled her off a very bloodied Marcus. She struggled and kicked but Penelope Clearwater didn't yield. In a grunt of effort, she threw Leyla aside and immediately, a few of her house mates grabbed her elbows to keep her from going at him again. The Slytherin house surged forward and a few brave volunteers clung onto Marcus as he tried to charge for Leyla again.
Meanwhile, the Gryffindor house had piled up behind Slytherin, obviously waiting to start their Potions class but taken aback by the chaotic greeting their next class had held up for them. Immediately, Professor Snape had arrived on scene, causing everyone to suck in their breaths and the pandemonium to die down at once. He surveyed the damage carefully, his attention immediately finding home on Marcus' broken nose and face half covered in blood as well as the scratch marks across one side of his face. Leyla was much better off, a large bruise forming on her cheek and a possible broken rib.
"This is unacceptable behaviour!" He said, his voice cold and steely as he glared at Leyla. She pushed her hair back and stood defiantly, her eyes trained on Marcus who was glaring back at her with the same amount of venom in his gaze. If she could just step forward and ruin the other half of his unbelievably regal and handsome face, she would have been able to tolerate whatever Snape could throw at her. Instead, she stuck to glaring over Penelope's shoulder. Her house prefect looked as angry and disappointed as her sister, who was decked in the Slytherin colours and her violent green eyes digging holes into Leyla's.
"She started it!" Marcus yelled defiantly, pointing a shaky finger at Leyla. There was an undertone of fear in his voice, but was obviously too scared to admit he had been losing the fight. Any other day, Leyla would have taken him and won but with Professor Snape around, there was no way she could possibly do it now. The three groups of students stared at the teacher next, breaths begging to leave their chest as they waited for him to come to a decision.
"Eighty points from Ravenclaw!" Snape declared, "And detention for a week - " Marcus was obviously trying to fight an evil grin but he didn't have to when Snape continued, "Twenty points from Slytherin for retaliating!" At that, Leyla chuckled loudly when she noticed the scowl Marcus had pulled on at the comment. Ravenclaw had obviously suffered much worse but it would never beat their hallway brawl. "Now," Snape said slowly, obviously close to exploding, "Take these two to the hospital wing and the rest of you, inside."
Penelope took Leyla by the arm and shoved her along. Lyla, on the other hand, managed to smack Marcus over the head and then followed close behind her sister. "That was utterly stupid of you," She said to Leyla, jabbing an elbow into her ribs, "I get that he said something insensitive but did you have to destroy half his face?" Leyla looked disbelievingly at Lyla. Even after what she had heard, all she cared about was Marcus' face. Truthfully, could they even be considered sisters anymore?
"I'd like to remind you, it's because I punched out his huge teeth in our first year that he grew a nicer set of them," Leyla said. She thought that was true anyway. "So, please, do go ahead and blame me that I didn't give him a nicer face and straighter teeth." Lyla reached out and jabbed her long nails into Leyla's wrist in a warning to stop. Leyla took one look at her and got the hint. If she didn't stop, God knows what Leyla would do. So instead, they walked in silence, Marcus sniffling every once in a while as he struggled to wipe his bloody nose on his sleeve every now and then.
Madam Pomfrey took one look at Leyla and Marcus and immediately pulled them in. She spent more attention on Marcus, as Lyla quickly told her about what had happened. When asked whether she couldn't just use her magic to fix them up, all she said was, "You two deserve a little pain for what you did. Might knock some sense into you, a swollen nose and a nearly half purple face." She tutted, seemingly more disappointed than Penelope and Lyla combined. The latter seemed to agree, her eyes trained on Leyla and arms folded.
"Stop looking at me like that," Leyla said firmly, fingers digging into the mattress. There was a strange burning in her throat as a lump rose to touch the top of her mouth. She tried to swallow it but the way Lyla was looking at her was only making breathing harder. Unlike Leyla, Lyla Domas was small in every way - shoulders, hips and right down to ever socket and joint. She was built like a China doll, but that was just the shell of what she really was.
Leyla and Lyla were like two sides of the coin and almost everyone saw Leyla as the dark side and Lyla as the light one. It was understandable from an outsider's point of view because the younger twin was smaller and nicer to everybody on the outside. With her considerably small voice and gentle smile, she was the embodiment of yang energy. She was the lit candle, and Leyla was the darkness surrounding it. If they only knew the two different personalities of Lyla Domas, maybe their jumping to conclusions wouldn't be such an easy option.
Lyla preferred to be the wolf in sheep's clothing but Leyla trusted herself to be what she truly was - a wolf to the attitude and bone. Maybe her impulsivity would have been a contradicting factor to her sorting but she was everything a Ravenclaw should have been, but when she got angry, it was everything in over her head. She was short tempered, there was no denying that but she could control it as long as assholes like Marcus Flint remembered not to step out of their shoes.
"You need to behave yourself," Penelope cut in, her voice as sharp as a knife, "Halloween is coming soon so through the next whole week of detention you have to behave yourself if you're going to be allowed to go. For God's sake, Leyla, all you need to do is handle yourself for one week." One week? Why couldn't it be one day? Leyla could handle herself for twenty four hours but one hundred and forty-eight ones were going to be a problem. "Till then," Penelope said, "You're grounded."
Leyla had expected this so it was no surprise for her hearing this. Being grounded by people who weren't even her mother had become such a common occurrence, she smelt it three months before it came and in the future, she could see herself being grounded more than just this once. She nodded in submission, not desiring to aggravate the situation any further. "Great," Penelope started, "Now, apologise to Marcus." Immediately, Leyla looked to Lyla for help, but her sister turned away. She slipped off the bed and walked over to where Marcus was holding a napkin to his bleeding nose.
"I'm so sorry," Leyla said, trying her best to sound sincere but honestly, she couldn't care less. She reached out with her hand and with a moment's hesitation, enveloped it in his own hand. It wasn't a second into the handshake of truce when she felt something snap in her hand. She yanked her hand back, looking at her limp pinky finger. Marcus had broken her finger. Amazing. She resisted the urge to kick him between his legs but moved quietly away. According to Penelope and Lyla, she probably deserved it anyway.
Finally, after her pinky finger had been put in a bandage and a tiny cast, they finally left the tiny infirmary room for their next lessons. Marcus and Lyla left immediately for Potions and Leyla and Penelope left for Divination, the head prefect walking ahead with an arm on Leyla's as if to keep her leashed. Leyla scowled at anyone who glanced at her, her free hand clutching her robes into a fistful to keep her fist from flying anywhere unpermitted.
Her head was still buzzing from that morning, her temper unwilling to leave her as it continuously flared inside her chest like an uncontrolled fire. The only thing that was helping her was Penelope's nails digging into her wrists so hard, it was definitely going to leave marks behind. The dizziness and the temper were definitely symptoms of sleep deprivation but Leyla couldn't help it. Sleeping wasn't an escape for her like it was for the rest. It was an entirely different nightmarish world on its own and every time she closed her eyes, and opened them, she found herself wondering whether she was really awake or not.
The week passed by slow, obviously not only for Leyla but for her other friends too. Everyone was looking forward to the Halloween feast-slash-party that was to be held in the Hall. Days crept by and the classes were getting more and more laborious to pull through but pretty soon, it was the eve of Halloween. The Ravenclaw common room was buzzing with activity, with people scurrying here and there, hanging up last minute but probably shortlasting decorations. Leyla was caught in the midst of it, sitting on the table with her pencil and sketchbook, trying to come up with inspiration to fill up the tauntingly blank page.
This week had been especially bad for her, and she had to endure one more day of lessons before the dinner tomorrow night. Snape had been especially mistreating her out of spite after she had beat up one of his Slytherin children, and Marcus' constant complaining was doing nothing to ease the situation. Whether there was anyone who suffered more of Snape's wrath than she did, she would never know. The other Ravenclaws didn't seem to have a problem at all, thanks to them always being rule abiding and mostly obedient save for a few rebellious ones here and there.
It was only a little while later that the everyone decided despite being too excited to sleep, they had better get some shuteye before classes tomorrow. After that, they were more than happy to join the Halloween celebrations in the Hall. One by one, they crept back up to their bunks and Leyla was finally the last one to leave the common room, knees knocking against each other nervously as she ascended the stairs to her top bunk above Penelope. The mattress was soft and accommodating but she couldn't suppress the fear that was rising in her throat as she lay down and pulled the covers over her pyjamas.
The darkness had brought in a vicious type of cold into the dormitory, following the trail of black as it snuck into every corner and bend of the walls. Leyla was left staring up at the ceiling that was shrouded in the dark, growing and pulsing like a living thing. Her forehead was beaded with sweat and her breath that came out from between her lips wafted and spread like warm fire over her cheeks. Her eyelids felt like lead, ready to fall close any moment but her nerves were sparking nervously and forcing her to stay awake. She didn't know and had no way of knowing what could possibly attack her at night.
You're okay, Leyla. You're okay, she told herself, eyes squeezed shut. She was trying so hard to believe it, but it was getting tougher and tougher and breathing was becoming harder and harder. It was a nightly routine now, trying to fight sleep and then giving up. She breathed in once and finally closed her eyes, feeling her body suddenly become heavier as she finally relaxed into the bed and her head sank into the pillow. When she finally slept off, it was with the fear of hoping to sleep through the night.
Surprisingly, her sleep was restful and the experience of a dreamless night alone was so blissful, she felt sorry when the stirring of the girls in the dorm finally broke her out of her sleep. She tried to stretch and for a heart stopping moment, she couldn't feel her body. Her heart rose to her throat but she finally opened her eyes and sat up, wriggling her fingers to remind herself that it had simply been her body waking up after a long sleep. She pushed the thought aside as the activity picked up and everyone started to get ready amidst a fervent excitement.
She couldn't escape the hype that had taken hold of all of them, which helped her get over the morning terror. She was left chatting with her friend, Imogen, who was more than a little excited for the Halloween dinner - mostly because she wanted the pudding, which Leyla found herself relating to pretty well. The others were simply marvelling over the thought of walking into a completely decorated Hall. They were more excited for this dinner than they were for summer holidays. She ran into her sister a few times when Slytherin and Ravenclaw passed each other, not missing the excited glint in her eyes too. This was their second-to-last year in Hogwarts and they were definitely going to love this dinner.
Finally, dinnertime rolled around and the tension nearly exploded as they all spilled into the Hall, eyes dancing over the Halloween decorations and the tables that were set out fancily for their dinner. The carved pumpkins that would have normally given her nightmares under any other circumstances were more than a little welcoming. They all sat down at the tables, Imogen sliding in next to Leyla. They both could barely control ourselves with the food in front of them but when they could finally eat, she seemed to have lost her appetite at Imogen's conversation starter. "So, I heard you broke Marcus Flint's face?"
"I didn't break it, even though I badly damaged it," Leyla said, stuffing a bit of pudding into her mouth. It tasted equally sweet and creamy, so she decided to stuff in some more. Over on the Slytherin table, she could see Lyla sitting in between Draco Malfoy and Marcus, seemingly uncomfortable with the seating arrangement which was a true giveaway by her reddening cheeks. She was trying to eat, obviously but Marcus' elbows didn't know the meaning of personal space and Draco was boasting extremely loud about his Nimbus Two Thousand and One. He had bought himself a place on the Quidditch team, and from what she had heard, Oliver Wood and his team was not happy about it.
"I swear, rich kids," Imogen whispered, blowing a strand of pale brown hair out of her face and spooning a bit of the orange pumpkin pie into her mouth, "You should have heard what Oliver had to say about it. A lot of things that I wished I hadn't heard." As a sixteen-year-old, Leyla knew how colourful her vocabulary could get at times, so she didn't know whether to be disappointed that she hadn't witnessed it or happy she hadn't gotten anything worse than what was already in her brain. She nodded, pretending to care.
The rest of the evening sped by pretty fast and it was time to return back to bed. Their bellies full and minds still swimming in the root beer, they were all probably desperate to sleep and wake up fully rested to survive the rest of school holidays. Everyone spilled out onto the hallway, Leyla and Lyla finally running into each other and stealing a few minutes to talk while Imogen stumbled behind them, blinking rapidly past the sleep that had definitely caught up with her. Leyla didn't look where she was going, but she ran into someone hard enough to knock herself dizzy. All around her, the flow of the river of students had stopped and from the front, loud gasps of horror rang out, echoing and spreading confusion all the way to the back.
"What's happening?" Leyla whispered to Lyla, who shrugged and both of them pushed past the students to get to the front. Craning her neck, Leyla felt like her stomach had pulled itself out her throat at the horrifying sight she was sure was going to haunt her the rest of the night. Three students, unmistakably Harry, Ron and Hermione stood in front of them, blinking in a possibly dazed manner at the walls that were crawling with foot-long words that glinted wickedly. Leyla felt Lyla clutch at her hand in fright as the words ran along the wall read, THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
What was more terrifying was the cat hanging by its tail from the torch bracket, eyes wide open and staring. It didn't show any signs of movement, or even that it was alive. Then suddenly, the silence was shattered when a voice rang out, "Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!" Draco Malfoy had pushed himself to the front of the crowd, cold eyes glinting and mouth stretched into a grin as he stared at the seemingly lifeless cat. Leyla heard Lyla growl in irritation, before she decided to speak up, "Hey, Malfoy! Shut up!" There was a supportive whistle from the crowd and scattered clapping. The rest of them were too focused on the nightmarish scene before them to acknowledge the comeback.
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Draco's shout had beaconed Argus Filch, who shouldered his way through the tight crowd and finally stepped out onto the scene, his face going slack in horror as he caught sight of his beloved cat. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs Norris?" All at once, his eyes landed on Harry. "You!" He screeched murderously, "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll - " Leyla winced for the man, but mostly for Harry. Must suck to be famous when all the teachers did was pick on you for it. Thankfully, before Filch could continue, Headmaster Dumbledore arrived promptly, cutting him short.
"Argus!" He was followed by a group of teachers. He carefully detached Mrs Norris' tail from the torch bracket. "Come with me, Argus. You too, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger." At that very second, Gilderoy Lockhart - worst teacher ever, in Leyla's opinion - spoke up, offering his office as it was the closest. "Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore said, walking past him with Lockhart trailing behind, looking important. The crowd allowed them to pass and as soon as they had left the scene, the boisterous discussions started immediately. Leyla and Lyla were swept away with the crowd, everyone dodging the puddle and glancing nervously at the words scrawled across the wall as the headed for their respective dormitories.
Leyla's stomach felt like their were bugs crawling in its pit and her mouth felt like she had swallowed cotton. Lyla didn't look any better. She could barely mutter a goodbye as she split from Leyla to head for her dorm. Imogen looked like she hadn't just seen, but swallowed a ghost. "This thing is going to haunt me for ages," She shuddered, "They're not going to stop talking about it for years, probably." Leyla hummed in agreement, managing to mutter their password and dodge the edge of the frame as the painting lifted and allowed them to enter.
The others were already there, buzzing fearfully and most of them had taken to whispering, as if speaking too loud would alert the attacker himself. Leyla rolled her eyes at them, trying to swallow her own fear as she walked up to the sleeping quarters. Penelope was downstairs, trying to calm down all the frightened people that could barely keep their wits together. As for Leyla, she knew she had better get to sleep before she could digest all of this and feel as terrified as the rest. That only meant trouble, especially before bedtime. Slowly, she changed into her pyjamas and crawled under the bedcovers.
Leyla woke up the next day, shivering at half past five in the morning. Her body was stiff and rigid, with aches sprouting up all over her back due to her terribly wrong and uncomfortable sleeping position the night before. Her hair was sticking to her skin, and her eyelashes were clumping with sweat. Another dreamless night but a painful wakening in the morning. The others were mostly asleep, except for a few - including Penelope - who had woken up and were trying to catch up on last night's reading that the terrifying incident must have shooed from their minds.
"Do you think it's too early to go for a run?" Leyla asked Penelope as she slid down the ladder and jumped off next to the prefect's table. Penelope didn't look up at first, circling and highlighting like a madwoman on her text book but finally, Leyla cleared her throat and caught her attention. "I'm waiting for an answer."
"Uh, yeah, I don't think so. Just be back in half an hour," Penelope nodded, chewing on the end of her highlighter out of stress, "And do avoid the Quidditch pitch. The Gryffindor team is practicing, and Wood has been pretty cranky lately. You don't want to get into another fight this time." Leyla felt hurt that Penelope didn't trust her enough to keep out of trouble, but she nodded and got into a pair of track pants and the sports tee with the Hogwarts crest on the left. She slipped on her tennis shoes, wincing at the stiff spots on her body and leaving the common room, where more people were crowded around with books.
Leyla broke into a run as soon as she left the room, and right down to the field. The morning was already irritably humid, making her sweat cling to her skin and her eyelashes to bend under the weight of her beads of sweat. True to Penelope's word, the Gryffindor team were practicing on the pitch. Leyla circled the field once, feeling her head swimming nauseatingly and then her vision going black with fatigue. She pushed harder, ignoring the stitch at her side and the thirst that had crept into her mouth like the Sahara Desert. She tumbled once, her eyes closing momentarily before she forced them open.
Her heart tittered at once as everything around her turned a sleepy blue. She could already feel it catching up with her and tried to force herself awake. She couldn't be having an attack, not now. Especially not now. She forced her foot forward and immediately collapsed. Her body seemed to seize up on her, her fingers curling in on themselves and her lungs hurting so bad it felt like they had collapsed inside her chest. With her last bit of effort, she managed a strangled scream before she sank into unconsciousness.
It felt like she was trapped inside her own body. Her body had fallen asleep but her mind was wide awake, knocking around in her head and trying to send the signal to every inch of her to try and wake her up. Leyla had faced this only once before but this time, it seemed worse. It was like her body had suddenly become a cage to her mind and she was left inside this vast sea of blackness, banging on the inside of her head trying to get out. She was trying to scream, but her whole body had shut down. What was worse than realising she was trapped was remembering that coming out of this was another whole feat on its own.
She was screaming herself dead inside her head, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, she could hear a distant echoing of Lyla yelling her name. Electricity prickled across her skin, and she jerked awake, taking in her first breath of conscious air. Lyla was standing next to her, eyebrows scrunched up in worry and at first sight of Leyla coming around, she launched herself at her sister, throwing her arms around her neck. "Thank God you're okay! We were so worried!"
"It wasn't too bad," Leyla promised her.
"Shut up," Lyla said, disbelievingly, "It was terrible." She looked close to tears and Madam Pomfrey was towering over the two of them, equally worried. Lyla herself knew how bad Leyla's parasomnia could get and it was no less worry for either of them when Leyla promised 'It wasn't too bad'. Leyla only noticed the soft hospital mattress under her when Lyla had pulled away. "Oh, right," Lyla said, noticing the questioning look on her face, "You had a pretty bad fall. Ran straight out onto the pitch and ran into a flying broom, actually." Leyla tried to control her panic when she realised she couldn't remember a thing about moving anywhere.
"Yeah, some of the Gryffindor players had to drag you up here," Lyla said. Leyla pushed herself up immediately, but flinched as her head thudded with pain. She fell back down, reaching up to touch the bandage around her head. "Oh, you took a Bludger," Lyla added on nonchalantly, "In the face, by the way, so it's going to take a long while to heal." Running into a flying broom, and getting a Bludger in the face - the first two things Leyla couldn't even remember. Maybe she'd been hit so hard she'd gotten momentary amnesia. "Oh, and by the way, you owe Oliver Wood a big thanks."
Leyla blinked. "Uh, why?"
"He had to drag you up here, and trust me, you're not exactly light," Lyla told her, helping her onto her feet, "You also have to apologise to Harry for running into him." Leyla's head spun as her words flew past her head. She slowly took the support of the table and forced herself into standing position. Oliver Wood was sitting on one of the chairs, knees bobbing up and down impatiently. He was still in his Quidditch robes, sweat beading his forehead and crawling down the sides of his head. He got up when he saw her and managed to sputter out an, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Leyla said, rubbing her sore forehead and wincing to bite back the grunt of pain that forced itself up her throat whenever she touched it. "Thanks, by the way. Sorry I interrupted your Quidditch practice - " She wasn't sure what to say exactly, especially since it was a clear message across to everyone that Wood was cranky and working his team harder than ever for the Quidditch Cup this year.
"Oh, it's fine," He said, suddenly grinning, "It was pretty entertaining. You ran into a flying Nimbus Two Thousand and got a Bludger in the face. It's a new record. 'Twas an honour to witness your clumsiness in all its glory." Leyla's face started to burn in embarrassment but before she could possibly think of what to say, he had already concluded, "Hope you're feeling okay. See you around." He grinned charmingly at her, which just made her face burn hotter, and then left through the door.
"Well, that was utterly embarrassing," She said out loud. Lyla was grinning at her. "What?" Leyla asked, giving her sister a funny look.
"I haven't seen you this embarrassed since we were four," Lyla said.
"Whatever."
Author's Note:
I'm bACK! I'm uploading this story from my Wattpad account shotgunned and I hope you love reading this as much as I love writing it! So please, fave, follow and review any comments or any feedback you have for me and I'll reply as soon as possible! Love you!